Birdow breaks record in Bulldogs 77-7 victory over Southeast

By Mark Glenn, sports editor

October 18, 2013

The Altus High Bulldogs didn’t figure to have much of a problem heading into their Thursday night game with Oklahoma City Southeast. They had no problem rolling to a77-7 victory over the Spartans at Hightower Memorial Stadium.

There was a minor problem when the Bulldogs didn’t handle a Southeast on side kick. It marked the fifth consecutive game Altus has turned the ball over in the opening two minutes of a contest.

Never the less that didn’t factor into the outcome of the game. In fact Altus came up with two turnovers of its own when the visitors mishandled two deep onside kicks. The Bulldogs also go an interception from Tyler Phillips in that time span.

The Bulldogs had eight possessions in the first 24 minutes and they scored every time. Taven Birdow had a phenomenal first half rushing for 230 yards on nine carries while breaking the 1,000 yard mark for the season. He scored on runs of six, one and 63 yards.

Junior quarterback Tanner Cross had touchdown runs of 40 and 44 yards. Cross also had a seven yard touchdown pass to tight end Jackson Herring. Malcom Lewis scored twice on runs of six and 17 yards. That gave the Bulldogs a 56-0 halftime lead.

But the night belonged to Birdow. He added touchdown runs of 60 and 17 yards in the third quarter and finished the night with 330 yards on 13 carries and that broke a school record.

“Oh yeah that’s (the record) is special to me,” Birdow said. “It’s an honor to know that I have rushed more than anybody played in Altus since there has been many great players that came out out of here. I’m really proud out of it.”

It was something that AHS head Coach Chad Stone was really proud of also. “He’s a special kid. He deserves that,” Stone said. “There was a difference in him this week. We came out and met with the kids last Friday after the loss (to Del City), said what do you guys need from us and they said coach we need harder practices we need more physicality in our practices in order for us to come out play like you want us to. He (Birdow) stepped it up to another level. He was running over people left and right. I wanted it (the record) for him. I told him that he would get two series in the second half. We were going to give him that opportunity in those two series. I did look at the records this week and when I saw how they lined up against our trips set I knew the quick pitch was going to be there. I knew that he had a chance to break it.”

The Bulldogs other TD came on a one yard run by Jayden Benway.

Altus is 2-5 on the season and 2-2 in the district. They will travel to Lawton MacArthur next Friday.